1
: an official note or report : memorandum
2
a
: a narrative composed from personal experience
every memoir reminds us of the faraway and long ago, of loss and change, of persons and places beyond recall—
Abigail McCarthy
Abigail McCarthy
b
: autobiography
—usually used in plural
His memoirs recall his student days at Harvard.
c
: biography
his memoir of his longtime friend
3
a
: an account of something noteworthy : report
the work described and discussed in this memoir represent a first-class investigation—J. A. Steers
J. A. Steers
b
memoirs plural
: the record of the proceedings of a learned society
Examples of memoir in a Sentence
a retired politician who is writing his memoirs
He has written a memoir of his mother.
a memoir of Hollywood in the 1930s
Recent Examples on the Web
Now, Blanchard will package her story into a more coherent format with My Time to Stand, her first memoir.
—Larisha Paul, Rolling Stone, 29 Apr. 2024
While in conversation with Erika D. Smith on April 20 at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, the Scandal actress, 47, opened up about the experience of learning that her father, Earl, was not biologically related to her right as she was set to sell her memoir Thicker Than Water.
—Carly Tagen-Dye, Peoplemag, 27 Apr. 2024
By Mallory Moench April 27, 2024 11:03 AM EDT
South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, a Republican and reported contender for Donald Trump’s Vice President pick in the 2024 election, has received pushback after admitting to killing her dog in her new memoir.
—Mallory Moench, TIME, 27 Apr. 2024
Food memoirs and cookbooks are consistently among the strongest areas of the book industry.
—Laurie Ochoa, Los Angeles Times, 27 Apr. 2024
The memoir helps readers see how thinking about death can improve their approach to and quality of life.
—Elizabeth Ayoola, Essence, 25 Apr. 2024
From looking through the unpublished memoirs of Maria’s uncle, the Stanford professor, and comparing them to emails and interviews with her biological family in Greece, a different story emerged than the one Maria had been told.
—Cheri Lucas Rowlands, Longreads, 23 Apr. 2024
Rushdie writes about the attack in his memoir, Knife.
—Mito Habe-Evans, NPR, 17 Apr. 2024
In 2006, the couple worked together on the film Running With Scissors, an adaptation of an Augusten Burroughs memoir.
—Catherine Santino, Peoplemag, 16 Apr. 2024
Larisha Paul, Rolling Stone, 29 Apr. 2024
While in conversation with Erika D. Smith on April 20 at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, the Scandal actress, 47, opened up about the experience of learning that her father, Earl, was not biologically related to her right as she was set to sell her memoir Thicker Than Water.
—Carly Tagen-Dye, Peoplemag, 27 Apr. 2024
By Mallory Moench April 27, 2024 11:03 AM EDT
South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, a Republican and reported contender for Donald Trump’s Vice President pick in the 2024 election, has received pushback after admitting to killing her dog in her new memoir.
—Mallory Moench, TIME, 27 Apr. 2024
Food memoirs and cookbooks are consistently among the strongest areas of the book industry.
—Laurie Ochoa, Los Angeles Times, 27 Apr. 2024
The memoir helps readers see how thinking about death can improve their approach to and quality of life.
—Elizabeth Ayoola, Essence, 25 Apr. 2024
From looking through the unpublished memoirs of Maria’s uncle, the Stanford professor, and comparing them to emails and interviews with her biological family in Greece, a different story emerged than the one Maria had been told.
—Cheri Lucas Rowlands, Longreads, 23 Apr. 2024
Rushdie writes about the attack in his memoir, Knife.
—Mito Habe-Evans, NPR, 17 Apr. 2024
In 2006, the couple worked together on the film Running With Scissors, an adaptation of an Augusten Burroughs memoir.
—Catherine Santino, Peoplemag, 16 Apr. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'memoir.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near memoir
Cite this Entry
“Memoir.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/memoir. Accessed 2 May. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
memoir
noun
mem·oir
ˈmem-ˌwär 
-ˌwȯ(ə)r
1
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